Luggage-Free: Arriving In Auckland

The obvious annoyance with going from Australia to New Zealand ? Leaving at lunch and arriving for a late dinner. But that and poor Wi-Fi aside, Day 1 of Luggage-Free is largely going well.

I had suspected that checking in with no luggage for an international flight might cause comment, but my check-in lady says it's all too familiar on NZ flights. There's a bit of making sure I don't have liquids over 100ml, but she doesn't even look to see the size of my bag. Ditto for the NZ customs guy, whose only concern is making sure I haven't foolishly left my luggage behind.

I prepared a video of highlights, but my NZ hotel lied about its Wi-Fi so I can't upload it. A task for Tuesday.

Random notes:

One challenge with no luggage: it's hard to claim a spot in the Qantas business lounge. I had to plug in my phone and put it on top of a newspaper. Yeah, I know: #firstworldproblems.

Biggest BlackBerry issue so far? The fact I have to use an odd mix of the official WordPress client and the web-based interface. Partly our system customisations, partly a really poor native app. Tolerable but irritating.

Comments

About ten years ago I went to Auckland for business and was only lthere overnight so I just took a small backpack with extra undies, socks and shirt for day 2. On arriving back in Australia I was reminded several times by various staff that I had missed the baggage caroulsel and wouldn't be able to get my bag once I had passed through customs and quarantiine. Maybe they are a bit more used to it now.
Having watched all those border security shows it looks like people who go overseas for short stays with little luggage fall into the 'could be a drug mule' category.

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